Mini chocolate cheesecakes with raspberry sauce.

Despite not being a massive fan of cheesecakes myself, my boyfriend is, and so I wanted to recreate one of his favourite styles of cheesecakes – a chocolate one – in a plant-based way. There is one good recipe that I found & adapted, and I’ve tried it a few times and it has turned out to be the easiest, simplest and really delicious no-bake cake with plant-based ingredients that I have tried and managed to not ruin.

Lately I’ve been trying my luck with no-bake plant-based cakes. I must admit, though, I’m not yet hooked on no-bake cakes. One of the main reasons being the fact that most recipes that I tried at home turned into disugsting, hardly edible pieces. So why do I keep trying then? Two simple reasons. First, because I am not the biggest fan of gas ovens. Don’t get me wrong, I love gas stoves, but having to work with a gas stove from… I assume the 80s… for the first time in your life – this takes a super long time to get adjusted to, at least for me. And I happen to have on of those buggers in my kitchen. Yay me! Second, I just don’t wanna give up on them. And that’s why I keep trying. But because I haven’t had a lot of luck with no-bake recipes yet, I am always super stoked when I actually do find a recipe that works on the first try, like this one!

It is a chocolate cheesecake with raspberry sauce, and actually, it is not one cake but several mini cheesecakes. What I like best about this recipe is the combination of dark chocolate & berries, which is perfect if you ask me. Especially because of the syrup and the store-bought cookies, the cheesecake itself tends to be on the sweeter side already, so I like to balance this by adding unsweetened raspberry sauce. This is such an easy dessert option. There’s not a lot that can go wrong (as there is no baking involved), they taste very delicious, and, in my opinion, they don’t have that no-bake feeling to it that some other no-bake-cakes do (if you know what I mean?). So there you go, here’s the recipe and an easy step by step instruction on how to make them.

What you need for the crust / chocolate layer / topping, for a serving of 8:

10 plant-based cookies

30g plant-based butter
–

150g raw cashews

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla sugar

60ml maple syrup

60ml coconut milk

100g dark chocolate
–

2-3 plant-based cookies

50g dark chocolate

1 tbsp. coconut oil (optional!)

a handful of frozen berries

some water

How to make them – 3 easy steps:

The crust
Melt the plant-based butter. In a food processor, process the cookies into fine crumbs. Add the butter and mix until everything is evenly mixed. Spoon some of the crust mix into your cupcake tray covered with parchment paper. If you have silicone forms, you can just spoon it in them, no need to cover them with parchment paper. Make sure to pat it down with a spoon so you get the typical cheesecake bottom. Place them in the freezer so they can set.

The chocolate layer
Soak the raw cashews in a bowl of water for 1 hour, then drain the water and rinse the cashews. Heat the coconut milk in a pot until it reaches a simmer. Remove from heat and add the chocolate so it can melt. Whisk the chocolate & coconut milk until relatively smooth. Pour all ingredients (cashews, lemon juice, vanilla sugar, maple syrup, chocolate & coconut mix) into a blender jug or food processor, and mix them until very smooth. The cakes taste a bit better if the mix does not have a grainy texture. Add the mix with a spoon on top of the cookie crust and put them back into the freezer so they can set. This might take a few hours, though.

The toppingRight before you serve the mini cheesecakes, you’ll prepare the topping. For this, melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler. Add the coconut oil to get a more liquid and shinier chocolate topping, and it gives you a subtle coconut flavour. But this step is optional, and you can skip it. Take the cheesecakes out of the forms, spoon the melted chocolate on top. In a small pot, heat the berries of your choice, mix in a little bit of water, add a bit of sugar if you like it sweeter, and bring to a boil. If you want to, you can also make a fancy raspberry sauce where you add cornstarch and let it reduce etc, but this is a quick one, so we’ll just wait until we have a sauce-like texture. Let it cool for a bit, then add the sauce on top of the chocolate cheesecakes and finish with crushed cookies. They are ready to be served!

Good to know... you can store any remaining mini chocolate cheesecakes in the freezer and you don’t need to thaw them before serving. I prefer eating them straight from the freezer, whereas my boyfriend prefers them from the fridge. Just try whichever way you’d like them yourself. And if you want chocolate galore – skip the raspberry sauce ;)

What is your take on cheesecakes and no-bake cakes? Let me know if you try out the recipe :)